


It's a Long Story

by SherlockDreadsNaught



Category: Forever (TV)
Genre: Autopsies, Case Fic, F/M, Immortality, discussion/thoughts about death, immortality as a curse, morgues
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-09-20
Updated: 2014-09-29
Packaged: 2018-02-16 06:59:27
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 6
Words: 12,297
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2260263
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SherlockDreadsNaught/pseuds/SherlockDreadsNaught
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>He worked with death and among the dead because...he was unable to die! NYC's chief medical examiner, Henry Morgan, sees alot and has seen alot. Now he's going to put his observations to good use--helping to solve crimes!</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I was thrilled when I found out that Ioan Gruffudd had a TV show that was going to be on ABC. When ABC released the pilot online several weeks ahead of the premiere date, I had to watch it, and have watched it numerous times. It caught my attention and my imagination, and I started messing around with a story idea around September 1. Hope you'll try out the show if you haven't seen it yet! Ioan is Welsh and gets to use his own wonderful accent!

Another day dawned over New York City, the city that never sleeps. And sometimes, neither do the residents. Pushing open the metal and glass door of the OCME main office building, Dr. Henry Morgan squinted against the rays from the rising sun as he stepped outside.  He paused to glance at his pocketwatch, since he'd totally lost track of time working all night in the windowless, artificially lit morgue. 7AM and not a wink of sleep.  The examinations he'd done overnight proved insightful in some aspects, and downright frustrating in others.  Far too early to call Detective Martinez, he decided as he ran a hand through his dark, curly hair. So then, time to get home, crash for a few hours, and then prepare to do it all over again. Before he started walking, he rolled his aching shoulders and straightened his spine, a rueful smile playing across his chisled face.  He was definitely getting to old to pull all-nighters, and oh, the irony of that thought...

"Hey boss, you're here early!" Lucas Wahl, Henry's main assistant, came trotting up to him. "You know I've been thinking...wow, are you OK?"

"I'm here late, not early," Henry said in his lilting Welsh accent.  "I spent the night working on those serial suicides."

"Serial....suicides? How do you even have a serial suicide? How does that work?" Lucas shifted his backpack from one shoulder to the other as he contemplated Henry's words. "Was it a suicide pact or something?"

"No, nothing that easy. There's four bodies in there, all victims of their own hands...but all poisoned."

Lucas contemplated that for a moment. "All right, I can buy that...ohhhhhh!"

"Exactly. All the SAME poison, all the same method of delivery-- ingested no doubt, but no signs of struggle or coercion, no injuries or marks, and as far as I can tell, no fingerprints."

"So then...they...didn't know they were taking poison??  Have you tested..."

"I have run all the tests I can think of, so I'll get you up to speed later. My notes are on my desk if you want to look at them."

"I'll do that, I love your hand-written stuff. You know I could teach you..."

"I can manage a laptop!" Henry gave him a small, lop-sided grin.

"Fine, so now what?  What are we doing today?"

"Well, _I_ happen to be heading home to get at least a couple of hours of sleep, so you can hold down the fort in my absence. Call me if another body with the same MO comes in. The mysterious cardiac arrest MO." Henry turned to leave.

"And what if that hot detective shows up, cuz I do presume she's working the case too?" Lucas waggled his eyebrows and winked.

"Detective Martinez doesn't know my findings yet, but if she were to come in for some reason, I've left ample notes that I think even you could decipher."

"Good, I'll go over...Oh hey, yeah, I see what you did there!" Lucas called out to Henry's retreating back.

 

Somewhere off in the distance something was ringing, incessently, insistently.  Silence, then it started again. More silence and then a tapping noise, close by, getting louder.  Henry grunted and buried his head under his pillow. Hadn't he just fallen into bed a couple minutes ago?

"Yeah, hang on, I found him!"  Abe pushed the bedroom door open and eased his way in, walking carefully across the darkened room. "I think he has air raid curtains in here, hold on."  He jabbed two fingers into Henry's ribs, eliciting a grunt and a groan.  "Henry, phone! Sounds important; it's that lady detective!"

Henry pushed himself out of his nest and took the phone from his elderly flatmate with a nod.  Drawing in a deep breath in an effort to shake off his sleepiness, he slid his feet to the floor. "Good morning, Detective Martinez, what can I assist you with today?"

"You need to get down to the morgue right away.  We just sent two more bodies there, and the MO seems to be exactly the same."

"Two more? Are you certain?" Henry was already up and striding across the room to open his curtains, sleep suddenly forgotten.

"Pretty certain, the thing is there's actually a witness to one of the deaths--the guy's girlfriend was in the same room when he keeled over.  Ambulance crew got him to the hospital but he was DOA."

"All right, have you called the morgue? Lucas is there, he can begin prep for us."

"I wanted to call you first, to give you a heads up. Listen, Henry," Her voice became lower, "We need answers because there is some talk on the streets.'

"I have at least a partial answer for you, Detective. I'll be there in less than half an hour!"

 

"You have got to be kidding me!" Detective Jo Martinez reached across Henry's desk to grab his notebook. "Serial SUICIDES? What....how...."

"I know," Lucas chimed in, "I said the same thing!"

"The hospital said the second guy we just brought in died of cardiac arrest, so we can probably rule him out, right?" She cast a glance at Lucas before pressing the issue with Henry.

"I'll be better able to determine that when I do the autopsy. I need to examine the contents of his stomach." In the background Lucas could be heard to say "oh goodie!" Henry glanced at him sternly, then went on.  "The other four all had traces of actaea pachypoda in their esophagi AND in their stomaches. Commonly referred to as doll's eyes or white baneberry. It grows here in the northeast, AND...all parts of it are poisonous, especially the berries."

"OK, so they were poisoned, but that leaves us with more questions."

"Right, exactly. The hospital declaring Number 452 as having died of cardiac arrest supports that it is doll's eyes. The poison bascially puts the heart muscle to sleep. Examining his stomach contents will tell us more. What we don't know is how this poison is getting in to their systems."

"Wait a sec!" Lucas froze in his tracks. "We have six dead people who all supposedly died of heart attacks..."

Henry looked over at his assistant and gave him a lopsided grin. "You're catching on. We have six that we know of. Potentially, there could be alot more, but we'd have to get information from every hospital in the area, about every cardiac arrest they have dealt with..."

Jo shook her head, "I see where you are going with this--you'd need to examine every body of every person who has died of a heart attack in the past...how long? Month? Three months? Six months?" She passed the notebook back to Henry. "Look, as I said, gentlemen, we NEED answers, and we need them NOW. Two in one day, I mean, what do we have on our hands here? A suicide pact? Some sort of cult activity? Or is it more wide-spread, like...like the contamination of food from....from someplace?"

"Oh." Henry looked thougtful as he gazed back over his notes. "Again, stomach contents."

"Yeah," Lucas added, "Most of these bodies didn't have, you know, ALOT of food in them, but I don't think any of them had the SAME food present."

"So that rules out the need to start a recall or raise an alarm about food suppliers?"

"Right, I think the food supply is safe, ditto the water. This stuff would be very noticable in a glass of water." Henry stood up. "Lucas, let's get busy and see if we can get some answers quickly!"

"You got it, boss!"

 

"So, did that lady cop meet you today?"  Abe passed the bowl of mashed potatoes to Henry.  "She has our home phone number, huh?  You never give that out."

"I usually turn my cell phone off when I'm trying to sleep," Henry said drily.

"Yes, but she had our phone number so she could reach you in that event!"  Abe paused and frowned as he picked through the platter of baked chicken. "You know, I miss the days of the neighborhood butcher shops. Used to be able to get real nice chicken livers and hearts and kidneys. Pathetic what's inside a store-bought chicken these days! Makes horrid gravy!"

Henry accepted the platter and took some white meat, chuckling silently at the rantings of his oldest and dearest friend.  "Still longing for the 50's then?" He purposefully let his accent get thick and poncy.

"You know as well as I do, there was nothing wrong with the 50's!" Abe was brandishing his knife and fork as he tried to cut food and expound upon the virtues of an era long past at the same time. "Hell, we were both alot younger! Great cars! Great music!"

"And yoouuu were too young to drive, young man, for most of the 50's, so don't even try to talk to me about the cars!" Henry chuckled as he cut into his slices of chicken. "By the way, the seasoning is perfect, dinner is delicious."

"It's not every day you're actually home for dinner, so I'm glad you like it. And now that you mention it, you made me wait an extra year to even get my permit to start learning how to drive!"

"We moved, remember? You learned to drive in a small town. There was no chance I was going to let you learn to drive in Los Angeles!"

"You drove in LA. In fact, you always drove me to school."

"Well, I was being fatherly, and I was 35, so yes, I drove in LA!"

"But the cars! Classics! Leather all over the interior, and the huge tail fins. We should have kept a couple of them, stashed them away someplace. They'd be worth a fortune now, the way we were always washing and waxing them."  Abe cleaned up the rest of his food. "There's dessert, by the way. I made peach cobbler."

"Everyone was always washing and waxing their cars. It was the family thing to do on a Saturday! Peach cobbler? Now you tell me!"  Henry laid aside his knife and fork. "Well, this will be lunch tomorrow then."

"Egads, you'd actually use the microwave at the morgue??"

"Abe, we don't..."

"You have no idea what Lucas does when you aren't there!"

Henry pondered a moment. "Good point, I suppose, food for thought.  OK, I'll clear the table and get dessert, you relax, you did all the cooking."

 As Henry was scooping peach cobbler into bowls, the phone rang and he heard Abe answer it. "Hello? Oh hello! Must have his phone off, hang on a sec, I'll get him!"  Two seconds later Abe was beside him, thrusting the phone into his hands. "It's Lucas, he says it's important!"

A slight frown creased his brow as Henry took the phone. It was almost 7PM, why was Lucas calling him? "Yes, Lucas, how can I help you?"

"I was cleaning up, right, while Joe and Andy were storing the bodies and...well, you need to come down here. You need to see what I found..."

 

"This had better be good!" Henry strode through the doors into the main section of the lab where he found Lucus perched on a stool. He had one of the exam tables raised as high as it would go and there was a small pile of unidentifiable matter laying on a plastic sheet. Some petri dishes were strewn about, as well as some smaller autopsy tools, a scalpel, several pairs of small tongs, and a small eye dropper. "I thought you were going to finish cleaning up and then head home? What is this?"

"Stomach contents of number 452, the guy who died at the hospital."

"Oh yes, their cardiac arrest."

"Yeah, well, just when I was going to close him up, I spotted something. This." He thrust a closed petri dish into Henry's hands.

Henry squinted at it briefly, then blanched. "A capsule...a gelatin capsule...not digested...in 452's stomach?"

"That's not the only one, in fact THAT one is in the worst shape of the ones I've found. There's two others, and I thought you'd like to examine them yourself."  He pointed to two more petri dishes, each bearing a mostly intact gelatin capsule, green on one end, white on the other.  What caught Henry's eye and filled him with a strange sense of elation was the fact that both capsules still had their conmtents safely sealed away.

"Bingo!  Good catch, Lucas, this may be exactly what we need!"

 


	2. Chapter 2

Henry sighed and leaned back in his seat, stretching his long legs out in front of himself. The actaea pachypoda, that is the white banesberry, or doll's eyes, was definitely present in the capsules. What bothered him was the rest of the contents. Simple medicinal grade herbs. The victim had consumed some sort of herbal remedy, but the herbal remedy was tainted. That meant either contamination or deliberate tampering. And if that was the case, then where and how. But first things first, he reminded himself. He had five other corpses that needed to be re-examined. What a delightful thought--spending the night meticulously picking the through stomach contents of the five corpses.

"Lucas, go on home. I've got this."

"No way, boss. It'll go faster with both of us working on it, plus you were here all last night. This boy just wants a piece of the action! Uh-huh, oh yeah!" Henry realized the exclamations at the end were probably related to something on Lucas's iPod. "Tell ya what, Doc! I'll run down the street and get us some food and some strong coffee, enough to get us through until...well, I presume breakfast time?"

Henry pondered for a moment. "With both of us working, and since we know what we're looking for, I would hope maybe just midnight." He fished out his wallet and took some bills from it. "Here, my treat."

"Wow, thanks! Ummm...coffee or tea?"

"Are you going to Jolly's or to the diner?"

"Jolly's I think."

"Then tea, extra strong. Tell them it's for me, they know how I like it."

For  moment Lucas just stared at him, then a shit-eating grin crossed his face. "Damn, someday, I want power like that!  'Tell them it's for me, they know how I like it.' I mean, wow, I stand in your shadow..."

"Lucas, just go!"

 

"Hot damn, yep there it is!"  Lucas let out a low whistle and carefully reached into the corpse he was working on with long tweezers. "Right at the pyloric, pretty well dissolved. Not sure if there's much of a sample left in it, but add it to the collection!"

Henry glanced over from where he was working, a mirthless grin on his masked face.  "Three down, two to go."

"Not like we're keeping score but...oh holy crap, there's another one...we do seem to be on a roll.  So what exactly do we tell the hot detective?"

"We?"

"OK, YOU.  What are YOU going to tell her? Hey, maybe she can put out an alert telling people not to take any green and white capsules?"

Drawing a deep breath, as much to relieve some of the tension in his shoulders as to buy a little time, Henry shook his head. "We need more, we need...we need to know where these came from! Medicinal grade herbs, several varieties, and the added nicety of.."

"Doll's eyes!" Lucas pretended to shudder. "Seriously, just the name makes me think of some really bad horror movie with an evil doll, or...OH!  I know!  Do you watch any of those paranormal shows??  There's one called Haunted Collector, I think it is."

"I live above an antiques store, so why would I subject myself to Haunted Collections?"

"Collector."

"Collector, yes.  Maybe Abe watches shows like that, maybe that's why he never has any old dolls in the store."  The whole time he was speaking, Henry's eyes were focused on an object in his corpse's stomach, which he also retrieved with tweezers. "That is the fourth one I found in this victim. Now, unlike the other three, this one is quite well digested but there may be some traces. I'm going to move on to the next one. Right now it's more important that we have a common thread with all SIX deaths than knowing exactly how many capsules each ingested."

"Yeah, hey, I can do a final look-see, no problem."  Lucas stripped off his latex gloves and reached for more petri dishes.

"I need to do an analysis too, make sure the actaea is present." Henry was more talking to himself than anything, as he moved to the next gurney, also stripping off his gloves and pulling on a fresh pair. "And try to determine the concentration, as well as indentify the other ingredients and what they were being used for."

"Max is here, he can go behind us and clean up, close them up," Lucas offered.

"I need the stomach contents bagged and labeled."  Henry was waving a scalpel around, then he bent to re-open the corpse he had just moved to. "Might be able to tell more about concentration of the substance if we do a crude analysis of the entire contents."

"Ahhh, ya know what? I just love these bonding sessions of ours! Really feel like I'm getting to know you a whole lot better, Doc!" Lucas did a spin-o-rama as he approached the corpse Henry had just been working on. "We definitely have to do this more often; it's better than beer and bowling!"

 

While he waited for Detective Martinez to arrive, Henry sat in his office nursing a hot mug of very strong tea, and glowering at the list in front of him.  He'd sent Lucas home in the middle of the night, but had stayed to work on analyzing the minute samples they had collected.  Someone was killing people and getting away with it, and right now the method they were using was going to cast a very dim shadow over home remedies and homeopathic treatments of minor maladies.  Logic was telling him the investigation needed to turn to health food stores, or any kind of shop that might sell herbal remedies.  What he had in front of him, however, was telling him there was deliberate tampering going on.  And he was certain, without even checking, that in a city the size of New York, there would be hundreds of health food or vitamin stores, both chains and locally owned. The sheer number was daunting to ponder at the moment, running on as little sleep as he was, but at the moment it sounded like the logical solution.  The next solution would open up a real nightmare--what if these capsules had been purchased from some mail-order site, off the Internet?  That possibility would mean that the  number of deaths would be increased almost exponentially, and at the moment he wasnt even certain how they could track such a thing.  Something was being overlooked, there was something nagging at the back of his mind...

"Henry?" Jo Martinez popped her head into his darkened office and rapped lightly on the glass door. "Have you seriously been here all night?"

"You know that term 'working stiffs?'  Well, I have been working ON the stiffs all night, yes, last night and the night before."  He jumped to his feet pro-offering her the other chair in his office and gestured to the pot of hot tea. "Care for some? It's piping hot and totally English."

"Sure, as long as that's honey I see it that container?"  She smiled almost cheerfully as he poured her a mug and passed it over along with a spoon and the honey. "I learned this from my grandmother, tea and honey. To this day, I simply cannot tolerate tea with regular sugar."  She stirred, then sipped, and nodded appreciatively. "So, you said when you called that you had something important in this case?"

"Yes, these people were indeed poisoned." He held up a petri dish with an almost intact capsule in it. "I don't suppose you happen to recognize this?"

"I'm not a pharmacist or anything, but...don't the colors mean something?"

"Not necessarily, since Lucas readily found a web site that sells such supplies as these empty gelatin capsules, along with other supplies like labels and bottles.  Last night we made a couple of discoveries. One, these capsules are how the poison is being introduced into the victims' systems. The other, which has us puzzled, is that not every capsule we found, intact or not, contains the poison. Most did, in fact the ratio was to two thirds being tainted to one third not being tainted."

There was an electrified silence as Jo took in what she had just been told, and turned the consequences over in her mind.  She set her mug down with a thud on his desk. "So it definitely IS deliberate, and yet there is also some element of randomness to it?"

"It makes no sense, but yes, simply stated, it would seem that way."

"And the capsules contain what? Drugs? I mean medicine, prescribed by a doctor?"  She pushed her long, dark hair back from her face as she frowned and pulled  small notepad out of her jacket pocket.

"That is where we run into some trouble.  The actatea pachypoda...our poison...has been mixed in with medicinal herbs."  The blank look on her face made him smile grimly. "How to explain? Do you frequent places like GNC or Vitamin Planet?"

"Very rarely...OH!"

"Yes, herbal remedies, some fairly common ones at that."  He glanced at the list he had jotted down.  "We've got some echinacea purpurea capsules--a remedy for the common cold.  We've got a blend of kava, passion flower, and St. John's wort--a blend used to calm one's nerves.  And we have green tea with hoodia--something some people purport aids in weight loss."

"So what exactly are we looking at?" Jo took a big gulp from her mug of tea, her eyes never straying from Henry's face. "Was this deliberately done? Or is there a chance it was some accidental contamination at the factory? Henry? What is it?" As she was talking, Henry had been turning the petri dish over and over. He grabbed the gooseneck lamp beside him, opened the petri dish, and rummaged in a desk drawer for a magnifying glass. Squiting at the contents of the dish, he waved her over to join him. "What is it?"

"It's deliberate," he said slowly. "Deliberate, and I would hazzard a guess, local."


	3. Chapter 3

"How did we miss this before?" Henry sounded angry with himself, as he pointed to the petri dish and offered her the magnifying glass.  "Why didn't I think to look?  The capsules should all have a small mark on them, a sort of trademark, but look at the ones in this dish! Only one of the three has a mark on it that I can see.  I need to get all of the collected capsules under a microscope!"

Jo stood aside and watched Henry bustle about, muttering and murmuring to himself as he set up a microscope and lined up the sample dishes.  Thinking it best to let him work and stay out of his way, she sat back down in his office and pulled out her phone to check messages. A couple of texts from Detective Hanson, just some updates on another case. Her closest girlfriend had called her, missed her, and so sent a couple of texts that she replied to imediately. As she was messing with the texts and checking her missed calls, she noticed a call from a number she did not recognize.  Odd, she thought, but probably a wrong number or else a spam call.  The area code didn't mean anything to her, so she decided to listen to the message.  There was a pause as the message started, although she thought she heard a breath or two being taken. Then the message began, and the timbre and tone of the voice made her shiver involuntarily.  "Is this Detective Martinez?" the voice began. "Or may I call you Jo?  Jo, we have a mutal friend who is not what he seems on the surface. He's more, and he's less, than he seems. Just be careful, or you'll get pulled right into the vortex that is his wretched life."  Then was an abrupt click and the message ended.

Staring at her phone, as if it could give her an answer as to who had left that odd message, she decided to try calling back the number.  An exasperated sigh escaped her lips when she got an error message saying that the number could not be dialed, please re-check and re-try the call.  Well, that certainly made no sense.  Spotting a pen and a memo pad near Henry's phone, she jumped up and helped herself to pen and paper, jotting down the offending number on her cell phone.  She slid the paper into her pocket, brushing aside the uneasy feeling the message had given her.  A mutual friend?  Whoever the caller was couldn't be bothered to identify himself, so she couldn't even ask friends if they knew so and so, and that was as annoying a the fact she couldn't call back the number.

"Hey ho, good morning Madame Detective!"  Lucas' arrival broke Jo's train of thought. "Hey, can I get you a coffee or a mocha or a frappucino thing or...oh." The wind seemed to leave his sails when she held up her mug of tea and settled into her seat in Henry's office.  "OK, later then. Did HE go home last night?" Lucas gestured towards Henry.  When she shook her head no, he went on. "What is he trying to do? Join these lovely stiffs? Don't think I've ever heard of an M.E. being such a workaholic!"

"Lucas! Suit up, get a microscope! And bring the laptop with you!" Henry's voice echoed a bit in the tiled room. "We missed something last night, it's a clue!"

"Right! Well, duty calls!" With a wink, Lucas was steaming across the room, pulling on his mask and his gloves as he went. "What's up, boss?"

"We need to examine the capsules."

"We did."

"No, I mean the capsules themselves.  I just noticed that some of them are plain, and some of them seem to have marks on them. No, let me re-phrase that, they DO have marks on them, the imprint they are supposed to have by government regulations. We need to be concerned about the PLAIN ones!"

"What? No way!" Lucas quickly set up a second microscope and grabbed a sample slide, and started to examine the contents.. "OK, yep, that one has the imprint." He took the slide Henry proffered him. "Hmmm... huh...I don't find any imprint on this one..."

"Nor can I find imprints on any of these," Henry gestured to other slides he had pushed toone side, "but THESE do have imprints. The ratio is the same, Lucas; two thirds have NO imprint..."

"And one third does.  It's tampering, cut and dried! I guess the lady detective will be happy to hear that...OH, wait a sec!  Yeah, and how many stores sell this sort of thing in and around New York City--she will NOT be happy to hear about this."

"To hear what?" Jo had come out to see what all the excitement was about as she had seen both of them bent over microscopes and then gesturing wildly.

"Well, I can prove that we're dealing with deliberate tampering." Henry held up a glass slide, wisely one with a mostly undigested capsule on it. "It's required by law that any drug--prescription or over the counter--has an imprint on it, put there by the company that produced it.  Two thirds of the capsules we found in victims' stomachs do NOT have imprints on them."

"And," Lucas piped up, "It's very easy to buy empty gelatin capsules online." He slid the laptop over for her to see. "A simple search and I have ten companies right here that sell this sort of thing.  Not to mention these weird little capsule machines, that's what they call them, to fill the empty capsules."

"I don't like this." Jo gazed at the laptop screen, her eyes not really focused on anything. "Henry, you just told me we're dealing with herbal medicines. How...Oh my God...how do we even start to track this down? We could be talking about...thousands of stores and shops!"

"I would hazard a guess that my office, in conjunction with the police," Henry spoke grimly, "will have to issue a bulletin to every establishment in the area that carries and sells this sort of item. Which I assume will be a bit complicated by the chain stores and their company policies. And then we need to collect the specific mixtures on this list and then...test them."

Lucas let out a low whistle. "Sounds like more fun than summer camp..."

 

After Detective Martinez left the morgue, Henry found himself feeling anxious and almost too tired to sit down.  He had essentially just said that he, as the Chief Medical Examiner of the city of New York, needed to issue a recall, and he was certain companies like GNC and Vita-Planet had their own protocols, which translated into time, which could translate into more people dying.  Yes, there were only certain combinations of herbals they needed to test, and yes, he could pull lab technicians from the other branches of the examiner's office, from across the city.  He stopped pacing and found himself looking at a large, white cardboard box with a lid. The writing on the side gave a number and a name.  It was the name of one of the first victims, so the box contained his or her belongings and the family just hadn't come in yet to retrieve the box. All at once, Henry felt as if his brain cells all lit up at once, and he chastised himself yet again--possibly lack of sleep was affecting him after all.  A victim's belongings! It was a long shot but maybe he could find something, anything to help them cull the massive number of possible targets!

Lifting off the lid and laying it aside, he peered in to the box.  On top was a clear bag contained a watch, a couple rings, a necklace, and a matching pair of earrings.  Female then, and glancing at the file number on the box, he recalled that she was in her early sixties but had looked ten years younger.  In fact, he recalled thinking she looked too healthy to have died of cardiac arrest, and now the very weight of those words came to the forefront of his mind.  She hadn't needed to die but she did, so now maybe in death she could help him solve the mystery.

His hand shook a bit as he set the bag of jewelry on the lid and reached for the small purse the jewelry bag had been laying on.  Michael Kors, a nice grade of leather, quite new as the strap on it was still quite stiff. Inside, a matching Michael Kors clutch wallet, also new, to the point that it felt empty.  The thought of how some women try to stuff everything into a clutch until it would practically burst open amused Henry for less than a split second.  Brand new purse and wallet, she hadn't yet made them a part of her. Opening the wallet, his eyes immediately landed on her driver's license and her address, and also an ID card for accessing the building where she lived.  Upper Manhatten, one of the nicer neighborhoods.  Henry's eyes landed on her keys, tucked in the inner pocket of the purse.  Address, keys, condo ID card. Henry slipped the driver's license and the keys into his pocket, and then hurried to his office and grabbed his coat before he lost his courage.

 

The Bromley Condominiums, Upper West Side.  Quite an impressive, hulking building, Henry decided as he studied it from across the street.  Henrik Lundqvist of the New York Rangers lived in a nearbvy building and had reportedly just sold his penthouse condo for quite a tidy sum, so no doubt places in this building had good-sized price tags on them too.  All was fairly quiet, it was mid-afternoon, even the street seemed more quiet than usual.  It was now or never, he mused, taking a deep breath and crossing at the crosswalk with several other people.  He strode up to the front doors and used the ID card he'd found in with the driver's license.  The reader hummed and the doors unlocked.  A nod to the guard who was only half paying attention, move through the lobby to the lifts and breathe again when the lift doors closed.  Sixth floor, not the swankiest of the condos, but nothing to sniff at either.  The carpet in the hallway was so thick, he couldn't even hear his own footsteps.

Condo 6D, a corner condo at the quietest end of the hallway.  The lock gave way easily and Henry was inside, letting out the breath he hadn't realized he'd been holding all the way down the hall from the lift to the door. His eyes adjusted to the dimmer light as he glanced around the room. Obviously a rather formal living room from the looks of the furniture, the grand fireplace, and the huge lamps that were housed on ornate end tables. No television, so the family certainly didn't make much use of this room.  Tiptoeing to the nearest doorway, he found himself looking at an equally formal dining room that actually had a pattern vacuumed into the carpet.  He had decided he needed to find the kitchen or a bathroom, the two logical places people tended to store medications and things like vitamin supplements.  Hopefully the kitchen could be accessed some way other than through the door he saw at the other end of the dining room.  Footprints on the carefully vacuumed carpet just would not do!  

Edging silently across the living room, Henry discovered a second doorway to the kitchen. Tiled floor, tiled walls, the room was going to be echoey.  He'd been straining his ears, but hadn't caught any sounds that would indicate the presence of anyone else in the condo, so he decided he was all alone.  He assessed the kitchen as he stood just inside the archway--a rather large break nook at one end, with a view no less; new appliances; lots of count space, granite to be exact; ample cupboards above the counter which ended at a large Nantucket pantry; an island also of granite with a hi-tech "burnerless" range at its center and an assortment of pots and pans artfully arranged on and around the hood. OK, if this was my kitchen, he mused, where would I keep things like bottles of vitamins, things I needed access to a couple times a day? Systematically he started opening and closing cupboards. Glass cookware. Mixing and serving bowls. Plates, saucers, bowls. Glasses, from plain water glass to fine stemware. Dry goods like cereal and sugar.  Just as he'd given up hope of finding whathe was looking for in the kitchen, he opened the last cupboard next to the pantry.  An odd assortment of items, from canisters of powdered drinks, to canisters of whey protein and...bottles of vitamins!  Reachng in carefully, he started turnng bottles so he could make out the labels, and there, nearly in the middle, was exactly what he was looking for! Two bottles, one opened and one still sealed, boldly labeled Green Tea with Hoodia.  He pocketed both, deciding that he had some experimenting to do and turned to leave.

"Just who the HELL do you think you are?"

 

 


	4. Chapter 4

"I am not even going to ask!" Jo Martinez glared across her desk at Henry.

Henry just gave her one of his engimatic smiles as he sat, cross-legged and with his hands clasped loosely in his lap. "Of course you are going to ask; you are naturally quite curious to know what I was doing so that a condo's security guard ended up calling you to verify my identity."

She stood upright and crossed her arms in front of her, still glaring. "Maybe I should have said I'd never heard of Dr. Henry Morgan!"  Letting out her breath with an exasperated sound, she took a couple paces away from her desk, turning her back on him. "Just what were you doing? No! No, I don't want to know!"

"Yes, you do because it was related to the case."

She spun around to face him again. "You broke into a victim's condo!"

"I had the key, how is that breaking in?"

"How did you get past the guard?"

He held up the ID card and then tossed it on her desk. "As long as I had this and acted like I belonged there, he gave me barely more than a glance when I came in. It's so difficult to find good employees these days."

"Stop acting coy, Henry! What were you doing in that condo?"

"Looking."

"For?"

"Evidence. And I found something, but before I tell you, I need to...test it, make sure it's the break we need in this case."  He gave her another enigmatic smile.

"So you're going back to the morgue?"

"Not right now. I fear I've barely had six hours of sleep in the past 36 hours." He stood and pulled on his overcoat. "If I don't look it, I can tell you that I certainly feel like death warmed over!"

 

"Just let me go on record as saying I do not like this. Not one bit!"  Abe, who was sitting kitty-corner to him at the kitchen table, leaned forward and picked up the unopened bottle of green tea capsules, peering at the label.  "There's got to be some other way to test this stuff!"

"Yes, there is, in the lab it can be tested.  I need to make certain, without a doubt, that this is what killed those people. I need more water..."

"Whoa, whoa, hold it! You already took some?" Abe grabbed the open bottle that was sitting in front of Henry.

"Yes, I took two so far, two of the unmarked capsules."

"And??" The bottle got thumped down onto the table for emphasis.

"So far nothing.  If this doesn't pan out, we're back to square one with how the actaea pachypoda got into the systems of six people."  Henry sat contemplating the bottle.  "The concentrations in the stomachs of the victims was fairly high, I'm just not sure of the length of exposure to it."  He felt like he was sitting on a time bomb, waiting for the known poison to affect his system. He knew death, he knew how to die; he knew there would be pain.  What elluded him still, after 200 years, was why he didn't STAY dead!  Once he was done with this test, he'd head down to his laboratory to record the incident in his journal, something he'd been doing for almost all of those 200 years. Heart attack. He was fairly certain he'd never died of a heart attack before, and he was nervous about the pain he was certain was involved.

Reluctantly Abe brought over a pitcher of water and set it within reach.  "You sure you don't want to do this lying down?"

"No, none of the victims had been in bed or reclined in any way. I want this to be as similar as I can make it without knowing duration."  He picked up 3 of the capsules he had identified as being unmarked.  "Let's up the dosage a bit." He popped them into his mouth and took a drink of water.  "You look worried."

"Well, Henry, what if this takes a few days? What of you go to work and collapse? Or what if you just plain get sick from that stuff? You always told me even too much of these herbal things can be toxic!"  Abe was eyeing him with concern. "I just have to wonder!"

"Lucas and I went through the stomach contents of 6 bodies. All of them had at least 4 capsules in varying stages of...."  The pain came without warning, the feeling that a giant hand had just wrapped around his chest.  He felt as though the breath was being squeezed from his lungs, and then he felt the worst stabbing pain in his chest. He couldn't breathe and he was panicking even though he knew it was just temporary.

"Oh dear Lord, it's happening isn't it?" Abe shot out of his chair so quickly he knocked it over. "Let's at least get you into the easy chair. Henry?  Henry, come on!"

Still unable to intake any air, Henry clung to Abe's strong arms and tried to help propel himself as far as the easy chair by the television. It was no use; he could feel himself slipping away. The tunnel vison was starting, he seemed to be looking into himself clearly seeing his past and his past lives flowing through that tunnel as his life energy seeped from his body. He could not see his son, Abe, nor could he hear him calling his name over and over, and yet at thje same time, he saw Abe as a baby, as a child, as a teenager. He saw the wars, he saw the people, he saw that horrid night on the ship when it all started and then...

His lungs were on fire, he needed air, he needed to breathe, but first he had to swim up to the surface.  He burst up through the water and gasped a huge lungful of air as he looked around frantically, seeking the shore.  Maybe 100 yards away, but the water was so cold that it was difficult to get his oxygen-starved muscles to move properly. Then he heard his name, and spotted Abe, waiting on the shore with a huge towel, a thermos, and some clothes.  He kept his eyes fixed on that rugged, familiar face as he swam towards land. Abe, his adopted son who had been rescued from a Nazi concentration camp. Abigail, his one true love, the time he actually had a family to love and protect.  A sob rose up in his chest and he didn't even try to cover it up, instead he let it out, silently cursing his life and his situation. He couldn't stay dead; once again he had died only to come back. How much longer? Why was he being tormented? Why him? What would he do when he lost Abe, he'd be all alone again and yet would have to go on.  These deaths of his were starting to take an emotional toll, or was it just that he'd gone into this one already so exhausted that he just had no reserves left?  He stumbled through the shallow water, eyes still on Abe, and then sank to his knees, too cold and exhausted to go any further.

 

"He's in his lab.  Well, you've already seen it, so follow me."

Henry heard Abe talking to someone, his tone was solemn--HE had been exceptionally solemn since he got Henry tucked into bed some 16 hours earlier.  Their late breakfast had been an almost silent affair, but Henry had felt Abe's eyes upon him most of the time, almost feeling the sorrow and pity in them. Closing his journal, his death journal as he referred to it, and slipping it under a notebook, Henry stood to greet whoever it was that Abe was leading down the stairs. "Ahh, Detective Martinez!"

"I was surprised to find out you were actually taking a day off," she said glibbly as she moved past Abe with a nod and a smile of thanks.  "And texting me at 2AM, sayuing that we had some sort of break in the case but you'd explain later?"

"He needs to explain, doesn't he?" Abe muttered before he headed back up the stairs.  "I'll get you some peach cobbler, this could take a while."

The both glanced at Abe's retreating figure--Henry with a look of bemusement, Jo with a look of curiosity--then faced each other.  Jo glanced around quickly before moving towards the tall table Henry had been working at. "So, as I said before, this is quite the collection you have down here."  She gestured to some of the larger specimen containers.  "It's almost a museum."

"Well, I'm a student, an eternal student.  Just because I deal with corpses doesn't mean that I am not going to keep learnng about...medicine and living."  He stuffed his hands into his pants pockets, his right hand wrapping around the reassuring form of his nearly 300 year old pocket watch.

"Right. So...you said we had some sort of break in the case?"

"Yes, I believe we do." He picked up two sealed clear bags, each containing one of the bottles of green tea with hoodia that he had procurred in his condo visit. "I can tell you without a doubt that the unmarked capsules in these two bottles are what killed our vicitms. The poison is highly concentrated, however what makes it so random is how many of the poisoned capsules are in each bottle."

"And the brand?"

"Sold exclusively through Vita-Planet. Detective, we need to look around the residences of the other victims. We still need something to pull this all together, like finding out if they all shopped at the same outlet."

"What if they bought it online?"

Henry looked at the bottles, a very thoughtful look on his face. "Let's hope it was purchased here in New York City, even if we have to deal with different stores.  It really would be a worst-case scenario if this stuff is being sold online. Boggles the mind to even consider how many people could be affected."

Jo was already reaching for her phone as she listened to Henry. "All right, let me see what I can do."  When her call was answered, she spoke into her phone, "Hanson, I need you to do some legwork for me. Dr. Morgan and I are on our way, but here's what I need..."

 


	5. Chapter 5

People were uncomfortable talking about death, talking about losing a loved one, talking about having to learn to live without that person in their lives. The normal person can expect to lose quite a number of relatives and close friends over the course of a normal life, Henry mused as he watched almost the same scene being played out for the fouth time that day. Normal. Average. The average adult in the United States could expect to live well into their 80's, and some exceptionally lucky or healthy people even lived to be 100 and more. Just thinking about the statistics gave Henry a pang of sadness, but he kept his face carefully composed and neutral. He was chronologically 35, and had been so for over 200 years; he was the exact age he had been the first time he died. In his long life he had never strayed too far from being a doctor, from helping people, and in those long years he had suffered many losses. Wives, even children. Loss hurt, loss was painful, and the conclusion he had drawn for all his years was that it was better to remain aloof and not risk subjecting himself to that kind of loss again. When Abigail died, he had Abe to lean on, they had each other for support, and they had managed to thrive after she was gone. She would have been 94, and still he would have loved her, and standing here now, dealing with a grieving spouse, he felt such guilt and pain all over again.  Life was messy, emotional entanglements led to pain, and what he had to witness today was only driving the point home all over again. Someday, even though he didn't want to think about it, he'd be alone again, and probably not long after that, he'd have to move on once again and re-invent himself.

"You're not even listening, are you?" Jo's voice sounded in his ear, almost startling him back into the present moment, which found him following her down the steps of the home they had just visited, heading to the squad car.

"I am so sorry," he said with a rueful smile on his face. "I found myself lost in thought, planning the next move."

"We now have three different stores, but my GPS is telling me they are within five miles of each other."

Henry blinked at her. "Then we need to find out if there is an employee in common with all three, or who has at some recent point worked at each store!"

"I've got time, we could probably get to all three of them yet today."

Before he reacted, Henry looked at her, really looked at her, and found himself thinking of what she was dealing with. Her husband had died suddenly less than a year ago. She was alone, she had a difficult job made all the more tough because she was a woman invading what most still considered to be a man's occupation. Outwardly, she was doing fine, she was holding up and dealing well. Inwardly, and that seemed to be what Henry could see, she was in as much pain as he was. "I also have time, and I think we should move on this quickly. Lives are at stake!"

"Then I'll send Detective Hanson and a couple men to the last two residences; he can handle the questioning and get the evidence bagged."

"I heard my name being taken in vain!" Mike Hanson strode down the walkway to join them.  "If you want to move on to questioning store managers, I got these last two just fine.  All I can say is, this is one messy case."

"It is," Henry agreed. "And just think, it could get blown even wider."

 

Armed with employee names from the first Vita-Planet store, Jo and Henry followed the directions from the squad car's GPS to the next store, located in a new strip plaza.  The manager at the first store had been more than aquiescent, having already gotten the alert both from the city's Department of Health and also from corporate headquarters. By the time they had left, he had employees boxing the herbal remedies in question, and posting signs with warnings. Hopefully the other two stores they were visiting would be just as compliant.

Parking in front of the vitamin shop, Jo and Henry exchanged a glance.  They both seen someone they assumed was the store manager rushing around, shouting orders to workers. "Must have heard we were coming!" Jo said.

"It certainly would appear that way," Henry replied thoughtfully. "Shall we?"

The mood in the store was noticably charged, almost panicked.  The employees seemed to be clearing all herbal remedies off the shelves, not just the certain few being targeted.  Before the duo could approach any one of the scurrying workers, the store's manager rushed up to them.  "Look, we just opened three weeks ago, I don't want trouble!"  He seemed the nervous sort, but there was something about him that Henry instantly did not like.  "You know, corporate called, and I'm trying to run a business here!  These medicines are all the rage, ya know!"

"And why is that?" Henry asked, keeping a careful smile on his face.

"Hey, my clientele are pretty educated.  They've been reading about too many antibiotics and all that!  I mean, they're health nuts!"

"Are you the manager then?" Jo asked, pulling out her notepad.

"Manager and owner. This is my second shop. These places are a pretty easy franchise to run, ya know, cuz the health nuts all want those fancy vitamins they read about in their health magazines."

"You do realize the recall is limited so far to..."

"Yeah, yeah, so far! I'm playin' it safe. Makin' 'em pull all this stuff at my other store too."

"Oh really?" Jo frowned slightly as she flipped a page looking for an address.  "That doesn't happen to be the Vita-Planet on Logan Avenue, does it?"

If Jo didn't notice it, Henry did--the man blinked and swallowed, hard, before he answered. "Uhh...yeah, that one's mine...1515 Logan? Yeah, it's mine. Why?"

"It's on our list..."

"List? What list? Why?" The man was starting to sweat.

"It's just a part of our investigation," Henry answrered before Jo could.  "Then you have instructions about where the herbals in question need to be sent, or you can call to have them picked up..."

"Yeah, yeah, sure, I know. Listen, I don't want any trouble, OK? Make sure you tell corporate that I cooperated and all!"  The man was trying to guide them out of the store.

"I wonder if you would mind allowing us to see your employee roster?" Jo indicated the papers Henry had in his hand.

"What? Why?"

"It's just a standard part of any investigation," Again Henry answered before Jo could, keeping his voice neutral but not taking his eyes of the owner.

The man sniffed and pulled a kleenex from his pocket, briefly wiping at his nose. "Seasonal allergies, maybe I should try some opf that herbal stuff. Uhh...yeah, I can get you a list..."

"We'll wait." Henry smiled charmingly at him.

After the owner walked away, Jo turned to Henry, a curious look on her face. "Since when did you start playing cop?"

"Since our not-so-gracious host tried to cover up how nervous he was and then tried to usher us right back out of the store."

"Nervous..."

Henry smiled at her. "Then you didn't notice?  When you asked him about the store on Logan, his blinking and swallowing was harder than what seemed normal for him. He's very nervous about something."

"Do you think he knows some of his clients...died?"

"He seems to know something is up. Not sure why he's making them," Henry nodded towards the three employees in Vita-Planet tee shirts who were busy filling boxes, "clear ALL herbal medicines from the shelves. Doesn't that strike you as...odd...even for a fellow as nervous as he is?"  Henry watched as one of the female employees stopped what she was doing and went into the office where the owner had vanished.  After a couple minutes she came back out, carrying a sheet of paper and making her way to where they stood.

"Um, sorry, Rick asked me to give this to you." She handed the paper to Jo anmd turned to walk away.

"Wait a second, where is Rick?" Jo glanced at the paer and then handed it to Henry.

"He's on the phone..."

"Are you really going to lie for him?" Henry shoved the paper into his pocket and strode towards the office in the back of the store. "Jo, I see daylight, there must be an exit!"

"I need back-up behind Greenwald Plaza on 107th Street! We have a runner!" She yelled into her police radio as she ran after Henry.  Clearing the doorway, she pulled her gun as they frantically looked around for Rick, the store owner. "Car?"

"I don't smell any exhaust!"

"He's got a headstart on us though!"

"Listen, dogs barking, down that side street!"

"Henry! Henry, wait for back-up!" Jo yelled after his retreating figure, as he raced down the middle of the side street across from the loading area behind the plaza. If he answered her, she couldn't hear him. Yelling directions into her police radio, she had no choice but to run after him. One block, two blocks, three blocks, she was gaining on Henry and if he had the store owner in his sights, then she was also gaining on him.  Bad luck, the street seemed to end after another block in a cul-de-sac.  She heard Henry yelling the man's name, telling him they only needed to talk to him.  There were gun shots in reply, a very small caliber handgun it sounded like.  An engine revving, a vehicle backing up, Henry turning at the last second, having been taken by surprise and then the vehicle, a van, gunned it out of the driveway and hit Henry square on, not even stopping.  Jo heard the police cars with their sirens, she managed to tell them via radio to stop the van.  When she reached Henry's side, he was looking panicky and was definitely not breathing right.  "I need an ambulance!" she screamed into the radio. At about that moment, Henry Morgan faded from her sight.

 

"Now you've gone and done it!"  Abe watched as Henry paced back and forth, worry etching lines into his forehead and making his mouth a hard, straight line.

"No need to tell me that, this is THE worst case scenario! I got careless, worse than careless." He stopped, his hands semi-steepled in from of his mouth.  "We're going to have to pack a couple of bags and just leave, just go without any preparations."  His dark, brooding eyes locked onto Abe's. "Listen, I know you're happy here, you have your antiques and you have alot of friends.  You can stay.  I just need to vanish..."

"All right, now, you listen here, young man," Abe wagged a finger at Henry.  "This is in no way the worst case scenario. I'm still here to rescue your bare ass from the river!  It's still you and me, and it's going to remain you and me for a long time, right here in New York City!"  Abe grabbed his arm and pulled him into a chair. "Do you remember what you used to tell me about the first time you held me?  How I just stared at you and held onto your finger?  And you said you knew in your gut you and I had a connection?  Well, we do have a connection, and it's stronger than it ever was. YOU are stronger than you ever were-stronger, braver, smarter!"

Henry's eyes softened as his mind plunged back to the end of World War II, of seeing a young nurse with an infant in her arms. Abigail and Abraham. He remembered how they had become a family, even after he had bared his soul to her. "Of course I remember; it was as if I knew you had to be my son."

"Then you listen to me! You didn't scare Jo off! She called in a panic telling me what had happened, and she wanted to know where you were. She wasn't screaming or anything, she was...well, yes, panicky because you had been dying and then....so I told her I'd handle it."  Abe stood up and reached for the kettle to make tea. "Oh yeah, and I told her to stop by this evening, so..."

"You WHAT?!?" Henry nearly knocked the chair over in his haste to stand up.

"Ahh, listen, I hear someone downstairs at the door. Your legs are younger than mine, why don't you go let her in? Henry...I think you need to tell her, and I think she'll be OK with it. Now go!" As Henry descended the stairs, Abe called after him, "And invite her up for tea or something!"

 


	6. Chapter 6

Henry's mind raced as he slowly made his way to the door of the darkened antiques shop. What would Jo say? How was she going to react? He tried to tell himself it was a positive note that she had called Abe and that she had taken him up on his inivation, but how would she react when she saw HIM open the door? Taking a deep breath, he turned the lock and swung open the glass door.

For a moment Jo stood perfectly still just staring at Henry, then her hands flew up to her face. "Oh my God, you're OK, you're alive?" She stepped inside and immediately wrapped her arms around him, hugging tightly. "You gave me one hell of a scare, Dr. Henry Morgan! And you had better start talking!"

"Invite her up for tea!" Abe's voice drifted down the stairs to them.

"Abe, in a few minutes! I think I need to show her my laboratory!"

"I've seen it, remember?" She looked quizzically at him.

"Yes, you SAW it but you didn't UNDERSTAND it."

"Well, apparently there are a number of things about you that I do not understand."

"Then join me, please."  He strode over to the Oriental rug that lay on the floor off to one side of the shop, lifted a corner and grabbed handle.  A well-crafted door opened to reveal a set of stone steps leading down to what one might suspect at one time served as a root cellar or maybe a bomb shelter.  Jo followed without hesitation as Henry led her down to a sizeable room with hewn stone walls and stone arches.  There were desks, chairs, a chalkboard, and tables of all sizes and heights.  The tables were the center of curiosity for Jo, as her eyes darted from object to object, container to container.  Henry stood in the middle of it all and gestured grandly. "I spend alot of time down here," he said quite simply.

Jo nodded dumbly, not quite knowing what to say and certainly not what to ask.  "Uhh...well...it's interesting down here, I did note that when we came across this..."

A soft chuckle escaped Henry's lips. "Yes, that's right, when you mentioned the torture devices. Just part of my collection, I assure you!"

"That's good to know. Not for sex then, as you so glibly told me?"

"No, just...items of interest that I've collected in my journeys.  All of this is, actually, but this is what you need to see." He gestured towards a high table near the center of the room and led the way, turning on the lamp and indicating she should have a seat.  Reaching for a weather-beaten, leather bound journal, he began to speak softly.  "It all began one very stormy night at sea, 200 years ago. I was ship's doctor, examining a patient--a slave actually--when the ship's captain and some of the crew came in, demanding the man be thrown overbaord. They feared he had cholera.  I detected no signs of cholera, most likely a cold or a sinus infection that had given him a fever...."

He paused and looked at her, only to find her eyes were riveted on him, her mouth open as if in amazement. "Please, Henry, go on."

"I stood up for the man, there was nothing wrong with him, but the captain grew very irrate and drew out his pistol, saying I would either step aside and let them cast the man overboard, or he would shoot me.  I didn't move, but I also didn't think he would actually shoot me. He did, almost point-blank, right in the chest, right here."  Henry touched his hand to a point on his chest. "It's the only scar I have. I was dying when they threw me into the ocean but...something happened. I don't know what, I cannot explain it, even after all this time, even after all of my deaths.  I somehow survived, a fishing trawler picked me up at dawn...and...I've been so many places, living so many lives..."

Jo stared at him for a few seconds, as she tried to comprehend his tale. "You can't die."

"On the contrary, Detective, I am very good at dying.  I cannot stay dead."

She pointed to the journal he had pushed in front of her. "And this?"

"My own records of my deaths--manner of death, approximate time of death, the level of pain, approximate time of...re-awakening, and as carefully as I can, I mark where the fatal wound was."  He smiled almost apologetically. "You'll have to take my word on some of the ways I died and where I was wounded; as I said, the only scar I carry is from the first fatal injury."

"May I?" She glanced at the old journal, and then back at Henry.

"Please do. Take your time. Abe...is the only other person in the world who knows..."

"And may I ask who she is?" Jo pointed to the wooden picture frame that held a black and white photo of a very pretty woman.

"That is Abigail, another chapter of my life." He looked so sad that Jo didn't press for details, instead she carefully leafed through the pages of the journal, scanning quickly for the dates, the places, the ways Henry had died over the past two centuries.  He left her alone, seating himself at desk towards the front of the room, hands balled under his chin as he observed her.  Time passed, pages turned, ocassionally Jo would glance at the picture frame, but most of her attention was on the journal.

"For heaven's sake, Henry!" Abe made his way down the stairs and stood at the bottom, hands on hips, eyes darting from where Jo was seated to where Henry was. "I made dinner, it needs to be eaten or I'll feed it to the next dog I hear barking. Now come on upstairs, you two!"

"His son," Jo whispered as she closed the journal, "You are his adopted son, his and Abigail's!"  She slide off the high-backed stool and crossed the room to where Abe was standing. "Oh...my God, I think that is incredible, that is amazing!" She whirled to face Henry, who had joined them. "This whole story is amazing!"

"You accept it?" Henry looked at her quizzically.

"Well now, Dr. Henry Morgan, there have been a few little, shall we call them circumstances since I met you that had me wondering, had me thinking something was not quite right. And I did see you....I mean...you literally vanished into thin air right in front of me, so...yeah, THAT needed to be explained."  She stopped, seemed ready to say something a few times and finally managed to say "I might need a little time to wrap my head around the fact that you're...200 something years old..."

"He's 35, he will be 35 forever!" Abe said quietly, gripping her elbow.

"Hopefully not!" Henry exclaimed. "I'm hoping to find the answer, the solution..."

"Huh..." Jo eyed Henry up and down. "So wait a second.You ARE a doctor."

"Always have been."

"Now you're a medical examiner AND you now help us solve crimes."

"I am a student of death, I observe things and understand them, where some people might not."

"Please," Abe entreated her. "Please come upstairs, have dinner with us, let this all sink in!"

 

Jo laid down the dish towel she was using and leaned against the counter. "Does Abe always cook like that?"

"Now that you mention it, yes, he does. I think the kitchen is his favorite room, and he has actually taken cooking classes!" Henry laughed and also leaned against the counter, rolling down the sleeves of his shirt and buttoning the cuffs. "Listen...I know I just put alot on you..."

"Actually, Henry, it's all good. You are a man of mystery, you're brilliant...and you read me like an open book seconds after I walked into that morgue." She ended the sentence sounding quite rueful.

"I apologize."

"No, don't because you nailed it.  I'm still grieving, and I don't think I'll EVER get over it." She brushed at the wavy hair falling into her face. "At least now I don't feel quite so alone. You listen like no one else I know, and Abe is just...Abe just seems like my grandfather or something...and oh my God, I just realized how weird that sounded!" She laughed.

"I must admit I also no longer feel so alone."

"It took a helluva lot of courage for you to tell me about yourself. I'm honored, no seriously, just listen to me!" She held up her hand when Henry made a move to protest. "It did take courage, I can't even imagine, and I truly am honored to be entrusted with it."  Henry was about to say something when Jo's cell phone went off. "Hang on...oh, it's Hanson! Yeah? He DID?  He thinks he what?  Well, he's fine because I am standing in his kitchen with him right now......OK, on my way. Do not take any statements from him until I get there!" Pocketing her phone, she smiled grimly at Henry. "Our runaway vitamin store owner turned himself in to a beat cop up in Queens. He's convinced he ran over some guy who was chasing him--imagine that--and he says he wants to talk. Coming with me?"

"I wouldn't miss this for the world!"

 

"OK," Hanson flipped through some papers, "We've got one Richard aka Rick Detulleo in room 2. Beat cop says the guy was almost begging him to slap the cuffs on him." He stopped and eyed Henry, who was standing a polite distance from where Jo and Mike were talking. "Apparently he did NOT hit or run over the citizen who had been chasing him down the street, so cross that off the list."

"Why did he turn himself in?"

"Well, get this! When he got home he suddenly realized he'd been taking some of the supplements in question, sooooo....he was asking the beat cop to cuff him, and also to get him to a hospital. Cop looked at the bottle the guy shoved in his face, and saw the blasted things had expired three years ago."

"Expiration dates are debatable device used by drug companies to move stock," Henry intoned.  "With some goods, such as herbals, like we're dealing with, the most an expiry date does is prevent an upset stomach or a headache."

"Yeah, OK, thanks Doc," Hanson gave a half-hearted salute and looked askance at Jo when she glared at him. "So anyway, dude thinks he's dying and he wants to come clean. I'm not sure he's our actual perp..."

"He's not."  Henry joined Jo and Mike, pulling two folded up papers from his pocket. "I was looking over these employee lists.  One, a Donnie Savich, has worked at the two shops Jo and I got to, and he has a record for alot of petty crimes."

"Let's see what Detulleo has to say, and Mike, can you get someone to track down this Savich, see what he's up to?"

 

"Look, I'm tellin' ya, I didn't know what he was cutting the stuff with..."

"Right, you're just the poor, dumb vitamin store owner." Jo scowled at Rick Detulleo.

"I'm tellin' ya, it was a money making scheme! We spent a little on some supplies,  then one case of bottles could be turned into three cases, even four we figured, raise da price by a buck because ..ya know..everything is going up...." He shrugged.  "I din't know WHAT he was putting in to cut it, I swear! I din't mean ta kill no one!  We were just making some extra bucks!"

Henry, who was watching in the adjoining room behind the one way mirror, turned to Hanson. "He's telling the truth. You can tell by..."

"Doc, it's cool. I believe you. Plus we picked up the other guy, caught him in his basement mixing all this stuff together. He had pill bottles, he had legit looking labels...only thing is they weren't from the company so, yeah, they could be scanned and the money could be skimmed off easy. Sent some samples down to you for testing...and whatever else it is you need to do to tie it to those deaths."

"Thank you, Detective. In that case, I should be going; I have work to do!"

 

Henry looked up, startled to hear the door opening this late in the evening. The samples that he had been working on did contain the actaea pachypoda, in varying strengths. That was still a bit puzzling, but he had a hunch neither of their suspects knew exactly what they were working with or the effects it had on the body.

"Are you a workaholic,  or do you not need sleep?" Jo was striding across the room to where he was working.

"Oh, I assure you, I do need sleep...and food!" He slid off his rubber gloves and pulled his pocket watch out. After midnight, and he hadn't even realized it! He noticed Jo eying the watch. "Yes, it really is almost 300 years old."

"I remember the story you told me about how you got it..."

"I exaggerated a bit....well, I guess I shoiuld say I lied...I was the doctor whose father gave it to him. I don't know how, or why, but it has remained with me."

"It's amazing, and even more amazing that it still works. So...are you done here?"

Henry's dark eyes met hers and for a brief instant he felt a kinship, something he'd longed for and never thought he'd find. "I am done, and I know a cozy kitchen that no doubt has some of the best Italian food you have ever eaten!"  With a grin, he sprinted to his office and grabbed his scarf and coat. He offered his arm. "Shall we, m'lady?"

Grinning back at him, Jo took his arm. "We shall indeed!"

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As much as I write, I have to admit that this is my first completed, multi-chapter "crime" story! Many thanks to everyone who has been encouraging me to write this, and HURRAH for a new fandom!!!
> 
>  
> 
> Actaea pachypoda (also known as doll's eyes or white baneberry). All parts are poisonous, but especially the berries, the consumption of which has a sedative effect on cardiac muscle tissue and can cause cardiac arrest. 
> 
> http://www.nlm.nih.gov/about/herbgarden/list.html medicinal herbs
> 
> and uses http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/druginfo/herb_All.html


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